Week 26 - The Rako Hardeen Arc

I’ll probably watch A Friend in Need today and then try to binge this tomorrow.

Deception is a really strong opening. It takes what could be a ridiculous story and makes it work. It seems like a strange idea to show the death of a character we first saw die thirty-five years earlier. But it works because it focuses on Anakin's anger. And we know that'll still be there once he learns the truth. How Obi-Wan disguises himself seems a little out of place as well. Like with all of the technology have it seems possible but it's a bit strange to think we've never seen it before now.

Anyway, the episode plays it straight but is gritty enough that nothing feels strange. It is interesting to see what Obi-Wan has to go through in order to infiltrate Dooku, the choices he has to make. It's a kind of story you would never expect Obi-Wan in.

There isn't a whole lot to say about this one. It does a good job with all it sets out to do and leaves you wanting more.

It's a killer start. 8/10.

The Box is an episode that really surprised me. At its core, it is really simple but it is just executed so well.

I like all the different tests. The second especially is quite frightening. I like how as they progress the growing respect Bane has for Hardeen. It's an interesting development. And at the end, Bane actually saves Hardeen. I know it's not like they're good friends or anything. And I'm sure Bane wouldn't have cared if Eval killed Rako, but he knew he deserved a better death than being dropped into flames.

And speaking of Eval, I was surprised at how sinister he became here. Yes, we knew he was a really bad guy but he had done very little compared to the other big players in the last two episodes. I never expected him to have a grudge match against Hardeen but the way it happened was really cool.

The episode is really simple, really brutal good. Every episode up to this point has been strong but this if the highlight.

It's a 9/10.

I watched this arc (2 of the episodes twice), but I'm trying to sit on it for a bit so I can sort out how I feel on some things.

I always say Ray-Ko.

I went into Friends and Enemies not remembering too much about it. Perhaps the most impressive thing about it is how much content it delivers in 22 minutes. There's lots happening with the trio on Nal Hutta, Anakin gets some great moments, and then there are some Jedi Council scenes. Even more amazing is that this episode does not feel rushed. I'm not sure how, but this episode just pulls it off perfectly in that aspect.

Hardeen, Bane, and Eval all bounce off each other so well. Every scene with them is stellar, and exploring Nal Hutta with them is a blast. The planet looks really good, and we see much more of it compared to it's appearance in Hunt for Ziro. So much is going on in the background of all the scenes too, ranging from the characters to settings. To make it more exciting, we experience it all from the perspective of bounty hunters, something not common in TCW.

This episode does a good job continuing Anakin's emotional ride following Deception. Palpatine plays into Anakin's feelings perfectly, making their relationship by ROTS even more believable. When Anakin and Ahsoka arrive on Nal Hutta, he is fittingly brooding, and it offers yet another glimpse at how emotionally driven he is compared to the other Jedi.

I'm glad Yoda and Mace realize they should tell Anakin the truth in this episode, since I wouldn't see the point of them hiding it any longer. It's interesting to see the lengths they'll go to ensure their plan succeeds.

From an action standpoint, this episode is great. The opening crash landing is exciting, as well as the betrayals by Bane and later Hardeen. The last few minutes are very exciting as we see Bane vs Anakin, Hardeen vs Anakin (including Anakin kneeing Obi-Wan in the crotch), and Ahsoka join the fray briefly. It feels very gritty and I think Moralo interrupting the fight was a smart way for the writers to end the skirmish.

The more I think about this episode, the more I like it. We get some of the best dialogue with the bounty hunters here, so many things happen, there's great character development for Anakin and even Palpatine, plus Nal Hutta makes for a really cool location. I watched this one twice to get a better idea of how I felt about it, and I think I enjoyed it even more during my repeat viewing. It may not be as consequential as some other episodes, but it's super fun nonetheless. I'm going with 9.5/10 for this one; it hits near perfection for me, something I didn't anticipate going in. However, I can't quite bring myself to award it a 10 like the conclusions of the Dathomir and Mortis arcs, or Plan of Dissent.

I went in worried how I'd view Crisis on Naboo, but I came out not so disappointed actually. I know most others here disagree, but let me explain.

As I previously stated, the focus of this arc was shared between Obi-Wan/Hardeen and Anakin. While there was a good balance between the two in first half of the arc, The Box made the decision to narrow in on the bounty hunter plotline. This made viewers believe the finale would continue that, but instead it's split. Yes, I agree that the actual attempt to kidnap the Chancellor was somewhat underwhelming, but a lot of that is because much of it was shown through Obi-Wan's perspective. What we do get is still exciting, but the bounty hunters didn't put up as big of a fight as we had hoped. Had it not been for the other half of the episode, I'm sure the writers would've given us a grander kidnapping attempt.

However, the second portion of Crisis on Naboo shifts attention back to Anakin. He realizes the Jedi Council acted behind his back, and it was in such an extreme fashion. He's expressed doubt about the Council prior, but this really gives us a look at something huge they did for him to become more disenchanted with the Jedi. Palpatine knows this. Both in Friends and Enemies as well as here, we get scenes of Palpatine trying to push Anakin closer to the Dark Side. In a way, these events roughly parallel the beginning of ROTS, since there's a plot to kidnap the chancellor followed by a duel between Dooku and Anakin. A lot is different in between of course, but the basic structure is there.

One could interpret Palpatine/Sidious as testing Anakin in this arc following Obi-Wan’s “death”. He sees Anakin as very powerful and emotional, making him easy to influence. The duel between Anakin and Dooku was a way to see who was the stronger apprentice. At this point, Dooku still is, but this fight was the turning point for them I think. Other than their encounter in The Lost One, they don't meet again until ROTS, where Anakin was then stronger. On a side note, I like the visual reference to TESB with Dooku sitting at a dinner table waiting for them.

Essentially, the whole point of this arc is to further Anakin's character development via Obi-Wan faking his death and going undercover. While the Obi-Wan aspect got a lot of attention, Anakin was the one who changed the most. In that sense, this always was Anakin's arc, but there was a really cool additional plot involving bounty hunters. Anakin's story just gets a little overshadowed due to the bounty hunter story being so engaging and even taking center stage in The Box. That makes it a little disjointed when we get to the end of Crisis on Naboo, but the main idea and its effects going forward are really important.

This is probably the weakest episode of the arc, but I think it ties up everything pretty well. However, I do see how it was somewhat of a jarring shift to focus back on Anakin when it seemed everything was building up to the bounty hunters being the main focus until the credits. If that's what you wanted, I understand disliking this episode. While that would've been nice, I do appreciate what they did instead. I'll give it 8/10.

Deception is one of the best first episodes in an arc ever,. it feels completely connected to what comes next and it only takes a few minutes at the start, which is engaging still, to get the ball rolling. Everything about the stsrt is pretty light hearted and fun but then it gets dark pretty quick at the funeral. Honestly it’s pretty harsh on people like Padme and Satine. I liked the medbay scene a lot as well, I’m guessing that tech isn’t really available to the general public for obvious reasons and might only work on certain species anyways.

The prison was different then what we normally see, although I noticed a lot of repeated models being used on the inmates. I do feel like Hardeen/ Kenobi gets Evals attention a bit too easily and then dumbass just starts spitting out his entire, highly illegal, plot to kidnap the most recognizable person in the galaxy. I guess the council somehow told the guards to give Eval a very long leash in prison. I never really understood why the clones took orders from him.

The return of Bane was actually surprising to me the first time I watched this arc, I think that was kept somewhat hidden although I guess we knew he would come back eventually. Boba and Bossk cameos were also cool and I’m glad it was shown on screen for their escape since we clearly saw on screen in season 2 of them entering the prison.

Oh and let’s not forget how hard it must be on Kenobi to watch Bane kill all those clones and he just has to accept it and run along with them. Anyways I loved this episode when it came out and I love it now, this could be a top 3 arc in the show for me, at the very least probably top 5. I’m going to say 9/10, other then a few odd parts like the facial tech never being shown before or Eval taking interest in Hardeen super fast I don’t really have much problems with this episode. And those points aren’t super important anyways.

Just thinking of what I have ahead, there’s 4 episodes that have a high of chance of getting a 10 from me I think and 1 episode that might be borderline....

Oh god Crisis on Naboo, I’ve spoken in length about this one before. Star made a good point above though that Anakin and Kenobi somewhat split the arc in the first half before it became all Kenobi in “The Box”. In fact after Anakins conversation at the end of episode 2 with Yoda it was a good place to cut Anakin out until the end of the arc.

The first part of the episode ain’t too bad, the warehouse scene is pretty cool and I liked seeing all the Jedi council make an appearance at the start. Seeing Naboo again is nice when it’s in small doses here and there. I especially liked the sunset on Naboo, always liked that version of the map on BF2 as well. Also why the fuck are there so many Nemoidians at the festival....

But basically there’s so many ways the episode could have gone but instead we are left with all this buildup just for a Anakin and Dooku fight for the third time this season. This plan should have worked imo, we should have seen the Separatists prisoners go free but instead it just happens sometime during season 6 off screen as Wat Tambor is in the Bad Batch (Start of season 7). I’ve already talked in length about this one before like I said but one of the worst parts is the communication between Dooku and Sidious. Dooku has to be fully in on this plan Sidious has, he must also know there’s some kind of plan for Anakin but he just goes along with it. Both Anakin and Dooku could have easily killed each other in that fight. I don’t know it just really confuses me sometimes, there’s obvious plot holes at times when there’s anything around The Chancellor. Also Kenobi gets to the tower at mid day and Dooku was listening... why didn’t he take action earlier?

Also I guess Embo doesn’t really get captured cause we see him in like two episodes. Maybe they even let him walk cause there’s probably not much case for him other than doing his job and he didn’t really try and resist... but I get the feeling both Embo and Bane worked together and escaped while being transported by clones or something.

Anyways this is a hard one to rate, while the fight at the end is cool and sort of unexpected it’s in no way how this great arc should have ended. It almost makes everything seem kind of pointless. I’m going to give it a middle of the road score and say 5/10. Which is in no way awful but it is 4 points lower than anything else in this arc. The episode is just super disappointing but it’s not the worst content ever and for the most part it’s kind of entertaining. Idk I could give this anywhere between a 4 and a 7 depending on the day but like I said it’s hard to rate....

Really tho a Nemodian is probably the worst disguise Bane could've picked.

it almost would've been smarter to pretend to be a Duros that isn't Cad Bane.